Digital photography has become increasingly prevalent. As users of digital imaging devices, such as digital cameras, continue to capture digital images, a means for archiving and viewing digital images becomes more important. Currently, conventional digital imaging devices can upload images to a computer system, such as a personal computer (PC). The user can then edit, view, and archive the images on the PC. The user can also organize the images into categories, for example using conventional software, such as PhotoSee Pro by ACD systems. If the image includes sound, some applications allow the user to hear the sound associated with the image using the sound system of the PC. In addition to archiving the image on the PC, a user can employ the PC to connect to a server via the Internet. The user can then archive the images on the server and print images, if desired.
The user can print the archived images from the PC or from the server. In addition to printing the image, techniques for allowing a user to hear sound associated with the image are also available. For example, a printed stripe can be provided along with the image. The printed stripe can be read using a device, such as a “ScanTalk” device manufactured by Olympus Optical Co., Ltd, of Japan. The ScanTalk device reads the printed stripe and plays the sound associated with the stripe. Thus, a user is able to view the image and hear the sound associated with the image.
A user often desires to organize printed images into photo albums for ease of viewing. Typically, this requires organizing the images after printing, mounting the individual images in the desired format on each album page and providing desired caption. Thus, a significant investment of time and effort is required from a user. This investment is particularly burdensome if a user has a large number of images desired to be placed in photo album or if the user wishes to categorize the images in the album in a particular fashion. For example, a user may wish to keep images of family members or certain events, such as vacations or children's sporting events, in separate photo albums or separate sections of a photo album. The user may also desire that images within a particular photo album be ordered in a certain way, for example in the order the images were captured or by subject. The user may also desire to have images of different sizes and orientations in the photo album, further complicating the organization of the images. Thus, in order to obtain a photo album containing the desired images, the user may be required to invest a significant amount of time and effort.
Conventional film cameras do have a method for facilitating production of photo albums. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,940,121 discloses a film camera that uses a film cartridge having a magnetic stripe. The user is allowed to indicate on the magnetic strip whether the user desires the corresponding film image to be part of an album, the general layout for pages within the photo album and a brief text annotation. When a user sends the film cartridge to a developer, the developer can print the selected images in the selected layout on pages having in an album-like format.
Although photo albums can be provided from the conventional film camera discussed above, there are still drawbacks to providing photo albums in this manner. Users of digital imaging devices cannot utilize the services of the developer to provide a photo album. Furthermore, the formats, captions, layouts and other aspects of the photo album pages may be limited. In addition, the user must make the selections on the magnetic strip of the film and is limited to the selected images on the film cartridge.
Accordingly, what is needed is an improved system and method for allowing a user to archive and view digital images. The present invention addresses such a need.